Keep being, keep doing
Recently I was on the phone to a contact at a philanthropic foundation about future funding. Sighing he told me that they were fully committed to the twenty social enterprises already on their books – all he said were struggling to make ends meet, all were asking for more support.
No one seems to be talking about it but across the charity and community sector it’s like a lake has slowly dried up leaving everyone’s boat high and dry.
And it’s not just the community sector, this week Organic Angels, a local online grocer we’ve always admired, closed their doors without warning.
It was a shock – this was an efficiently run, well-marketed business going into liquidation after 19 years.
Organic Angels aren’t an isolated case, I’ve been keeping a list of local food businesses that have closed since lockdown. The Angels are one more victim of the cost-of-living crisis and interest rate rises forcing people to save wherever they can.
CERES too is facing its own challenges.
Financially we’re pretty diverse, usually when things get tight in one area something else covers the gap. During the pandemic a busy Fair Food helped keep our Schools Excursion Team going, in other times it’s been a funded employment program or a good year at the Nursery.
This year every area is down – sales at our social enterprises, grants for new programs, philanthropic support all down, meanwhile our expenses are all up.
We reach out to friends in government and philanthropy – they listen and offer sympathy, but there’s a shrinking pot of money and more and more organisations needing help.
What do we do? We do what everyone does – we cut. People lose their jobs, others have hours cut, projects are being wound up and spending goes only on what’s absolutely essential.
That’s why you’ll see this year’s annual appeal launched with more urgency than ever – we need to raise $150,000 by EOFY.
If you’ve ever done a GoFundMe for a friend or a cause, you’ll understand it’s always the people who know you that help out the most.
CERES is depending on this being true – this year we need the people who know us to help us get to our target.
Whenever I tell someone I work at CERES the reaction is always – Oh, I love CERES! – and then they tell me how they went to CERES with their school or they take their toddler to the playground, or that CERES is their sanctuary in the city or how they learned to fix bikes or grow food or volunteer or celebrate a solstice or bring their olives or get their food box….
If you want CERES to keep being this place, keep doing these things, our annual appeal page is here.
Donating isn’t the only way to help you can also;
- share our appeal with your friends and family on Facebook or Insta
- or buy a coffee, your groceries or plants or timber or a workshop from one of our social enterprises
Have a great week
Chris
